Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) Shares Acquired by Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,887 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 531 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Fortis were worth $744,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTS. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortis by 6.3% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 28,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,114,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691 shares during the period. Code Waechter LLC acquired a new position in Fortis in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $838,000. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new position in Fortis during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $209,000. Creative Planning raised its position in Fortis by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 52,266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,375,000 after buying an additional 9,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Washington Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Fortis by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,815 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $855,000 after acquiring an additional 2,400 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Raymond James lowered shares of Fortis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Fortis Stock Performance

Shares of FTS stock opened at $43.52 on Friday. Fortis Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.86 and a 52-week high of $46.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $21.73 billion, a PE ratio of 18.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.38.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Fortis had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 14.06%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortis Inc. will post 2.27 EPS for the current year.

Fortis Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.4382 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.03%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.41%.

About Fortis

Fortis Inc operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 447,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 103,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,408 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity.